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moroccan roasted vegetables

The markets and orchards of Central New York are swollen with colors more vibrant than a box of Lucky Charms. From procuring ingredients for my first salsa to picking apples with visiting family, all this bounty has kept me busy.

And then there was Saturday night’s excursion to the bedimmed Manlius Theater to see Food, Inc., a new documentary on the evils of the modern food industry. There were the expected appearances by Michael Pollan and his crony EricSchlosser of Fast Food Nation. There were undercover slaughterhouse cameras and dejected farmers. There was an appearance by the grieving mother of a 2-year-old poisoned by contaminated ground beef.

There were as many “corporation X refused to comment for this film” as there were new reasons to eat real food.

Check out this quote by Pollan on the backwardness of the modern food industry:

It’s a whole lot easier to slap a health claim on a box of sugary cereal than on a raw potato or a carrot … the most healthful foods in the supermarket sit there quietly in the produce section, silent as stroke victims, while a few aisles over the Cocoa Puffs and Lucky Charms are screaming their newfound ‘whole-grain goodness’ to the rafters. Watch out for those health claims.

We have a warped system where Coke and Doritos are more affordable than the ingredients for a salad. We sit blindly by while a handful of corporations mess with our kitchens. I watch documentaries like King Corn and Food, Inc., and still it’s hard to say no sometimes to chicken wings. Ignorance may truly be bliss, but for me a daily commitment to real, raw, unprocessed food brings a more continuous joy.

Take these delicious Moroccan roasted vegetables, an idea lifted from my old standby, the Moosewood New Classics. Plain old yam wrested from the earth, shiny purple eggplant and zucchini from a local farmer, red pepper and onion all tossed with lemon juice and the fire-colored spices of northern Africa. Easy as chopping, seasoning and baking, this saucy mix yields enough to last for a few days.

Better than the lack of additives and sweeteners was the simplicity of flavors. The original Happy Meal was never patented and is not sold along suburban byways. It’s right here, in our fields and on our plates.

11 responses to “moroccan roasted vegetables”

Oh, I was wondering too if you have some apple recipes? Most of our apples and pears have now ripened and we’ve picked quite the crop. We do apple crumble and sometimes apple pie, or just stewed apples for dessert, but I wouldn’t mind learning a few more tricks to get the most out of this bounty. Sometimes there will be a small pecked bit on them where the birds or insects have got to them so not all are good for taking to the office for instance and need to be used up in recipes instead.

I’m going to make this on the weekend. My friends and I are doing a ‘Harvest’ potluck. I love your recipes and your writing (as always). You are such an inspiration Jen. I’ll let you know how it works out!!

I think your blog and diet are great, but I did feel the need to say that it actually isn’t more expensive to eat non-processed foods. I know it can be expensive to buy organic produce, and that’s a different issue. It actually is a lot cheaper to buy a bunch of fresh produce, rice, and pasta to eat than to subsist on tv dinners and Doritoes. You can buy a bag of potatoes, for instance, that contains three servings for $3.99, whereas a tv dinner containing one serving usually costs around $5. Eating healthy isn’t more expensive if you know how to do it. The public is just misinformed.

I completely agree, I was just reiterating a point the film makes: the illusion of cheap food. I too buy unprocessed, raw ingredients and find that homemade granola, for example, is much cheaper than 5$ boxes of cereal. But junk food on a whole is actually cheaper, because the ingredients (corn, corn syrup, corn-based preservatives) get government subsidies. In the film, a working-class family continually eats fast food because they can feed everyone for under 15$, and a trip to buy fresh vegetables sets them back much more. Just an interesting perspective, that’s all.

I can’t believe I’m the first prosen to comment on this. My husband and I tried this recipe over the weekend and while 1 or 2 of the ingredients weren’t available at our local supermarket it turned out to be delicious. I don’t know much about Morocco and their food, but this is definitely what I imagined their food taste like